The worship of Helios was
introduced into Greece from Asia. According to the earliest conceptions of the
Greeks he was not only the sun-god, but also the personification of life and
all life-giving power, for light is well known to be an indispensable condition
of all healthy terrestrial life. The worship of the sun was originally very
widely spread, {62} not only among the early Greeks themselves, but also among
other primitive nations. To us the sun is simply the orb of light, which, high
above our heads, performs each day the functions assigned to it by a mighty and
invisible Power; we can, therefore, form but a faint idea of the impression which
it produced upon the spirit of a people whose intellect was still in its
infancy, and who believed, with child-like simplicity, that every power of
nature was a divinity, which, according as its character was baleful or beneficent,
worked for the destruction or benefit of the human race.

Helios, who was the son of the
Titans Hyperion and Theia, is described as rising every morning in the east,
preceded by his sister Eos (the Dawn), who, with her rosy fingers, paints the
tips of the mountains, and draws aside that misty veil through which her
brother is about to appear. When he has burst forth in all the glorious light
of day, Eos disappears, and Helios now drives his flame-darting chariot along
the accustomed track. This chariot, which is of burnished gold, is drawn by
four fire-breathing steeds, behind which the young god stands erect with
flashing eyes, his head surrounded with rays, holding in one hand the reins of
those fiery coursers which in all hands save his are unmanageable. When towards
evening he descends the curve[26] in order to cool his burning forehead in the waters
of the deep sea, he is followed closely by his sister Selene (the Moon), who is
now prepared to take charge of the world, and illumine with her silver crescent
the dusky night. Helios meanwhile rests from his labours, and, reclining softly
on the cool fragrant couch prepared for him by the sea-nymphs, recruits himself
for another life-giving, joy-inspiring, and beauteous day.

[26] The course which the sun
ran was considered by the ancients to be a rising and descending curve [drawing
of an arc], the centre of which was supposed to be reached by Helios at
mid-day.